In his book Jesus, Interrupted, New Testament scholar and textual critic Bart Ehrman notes that he gives his students a reflection question at the end of every semester in his introductory course on the New Testament. Allowing two pages to respond, he asks the following:

You're talking to someone about religion and, as sometimes happens, she turns on the steam. "Look," she says, "the New Testament is full of contradictions; we can't know what the man Jesus actually did; the apostle Paul turned Jesus' simple preaching of the coming Kingdom into a complicated theological system of sin, judgment, and redemption; and most of the NT writers actually believed that the end was coming in their own lifetime. This book is misogynist and anti-Semitic and homophobic and has been used to justify all sorts of horrendous acts of suppression over the ages: just listen to some of the televangelists! This is a dangerous book!" How do you respond? (2009, p. 270).

How do you approach Catholics who believe they are already Christians? How do you share the Gospel with Catholics who are adding to what Jesus finished on Calvary's cross? We must begin by telling them that sacrifice of the Lord Jesus was perfect, complete and sufficient for their salvation. To add to Christ's finished work of redemption is to nullify grace - the only means by which God saves sinners (Rom. 11:6). Most Catholics do not know God's punishment for sin or His only provision for it. If we are to reach Catholics for Christ we must tell them God's righteous justice requires the death penalty for any and all sin. Only then will they see how futile their works are, and only then will they turn to the Savior, who died as a substitute, to pay the death penalty sinners deserve.